The Chetham's International Piano Summer School is a source of inspiration, fun, insight and focus for everyone who enjoys the piano and piano playing. Now in its nineteenth year, it continues to grow and develop as a 'piano republic of equals'. There is no elitism on the course, though everyone is extremely serious about piano playing.

There is no other summer school that manages to cater for the universal: Adult amateurs, promising children and observers are as welcome on the course as concert pianists, international young artists preparing for top competitions, and professional music teachers.

6th Manchester International Concerto Competition for Young Pianists
August 21st - 27th 2019

The sixth competition will be for pianists aged 22 and under on 1 August 2019. A complete and unedited video or audio recording of ANY piano concerto must be submitted via the online application form by 4 June 2019. Multiple entries from a single applicant are welcome but each submitted concerto requires a separate application and fee.

The first round performances and recordings can include a compete performance of ANY piano concerto from memory. If selected for the semi-final stages the pianist must choose a concerto from the set list HERE

Applications must include a reference from a professional musician of standing to verify that the recording was indeed live and made without any editing.

No more than 18 performers will be accepted for the semi-final round of the competition, which will take place in the Stoller Hall, Chetham's school of Music on 22nd and 23rd August 2019. Semi-finalists will be required to perform their complete concerto from memory with a second piano accompaniment of the orchestral part. Official accompanists will be available, though all candidates may if they so choose opt to use their own accompanists.

A maximum of 6 semi-finalists will be selected by the jury to perform their chosen concerto in its entirety in the final of the competition. The finals will take place from 19.00hrs in the Stoller Concert Hall, Chetham's School of Music on the 25th and 26th August, with the outstanding Manchester Camerata and conductor Stephen Threlfall.

At the end of each week of the course it will be possible for young pianists to book a personal advice audition with the Head of Keyboard, Murray McLachlan or a member of the keyboard staff from Chetham's School of music. This will provide an opportunity to receive immediate professional feedback on their playing and musical ability. If you are considering applying to Chetham's, this will provide an opportunity to ask questions abut the school and the different options available.

What use is skill in aural to a musician? Can being able to identify pitches within a scale help one to play any more musically? What about harmony and keys? Does it make any difference if one can identify a modulation to the dominant at a hundred paces? Or a cadence? And surely rhythm is no more than learning a pattern by heart and then copying it?

This course hopes to help pianists to think more musically, to develop musical awareness and to develop that critical facility, the 'inner ear'. Ultimately all these things help a player to interpret music with more understanding and imagination. Or to put it another way, to turn automatons into poets.